1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of rapidly and accurately producing trim for commercial building and home siding installation.
2. Background of the Prior Art
In the art of installing siding which is usually made from painted metal, such as aluminum or steel, it is necessary to provide various trim pieces around doors and windows or to cover soffit and fascia. For example, it is often desirable to cover brickmold around windows and doors. These moldings need to tie in with the rest of the siding for the sake of weather tightness and appearance.
It is most desirable to produce such trim pieces from a series of long lengths of flat stock or from coil stock which is pulled from a coil and cut to the length desired. In view of the different finishes, colors, thicknesses and type of metal and other variations, it is important to keep inventory at a minimum. Long lengths of flat stock are fabricated by bending along "break lines" parallel to one long edge to produce different cross-sectional shapes. Windows and doors to be trimmed vary considerably from job to job because of differences in architectural design and construction practices. Consequently, the trim is custom made in order to produce the best appearance and fit.
It is customary to take appropriate measurements from the structure which is to be trimmed and then mark the flat sheet stock to be bent to establish the "break lines" on the stock. By this is meant imaginary or applied lines parallel to the longitudinal edge of the stock which define the width of individual panels after the stock is bent. The finished trim often has some kind of generally "U" shape which serves to run off rain water. The stock is bent along the break lines by means of a bending break which may be hand or power operated. Once it is known where the break lines should be located, it is necessary to produce a plurality of similar pieces to use on a multiplicity of doors and windows, the pieces generally being mitered at an angle such as 45 degrees to intersect at the corners.
This necessitates repetitively and manually marking the break lines on successive flat stock pieces in order to determine the position of the break lines so that the stock can be placed in the brake and bent at the appropriate place. Manual marking is required on both ends of the stock or along the length of the stock in order to provide a positioning mark to locate the stock and the break for bending along the bending axis of the brake. In addition to being extremely time consuming, the manual marking often engenders wastage of stock caused by error. Even more significant is the time required to position the break lines of the stock on the bending axis of the brake. This operation is also difficult, fraught with error and is tedious, a combination designed to cause waste. The alignment is more difficult once several bends have been made on a piece because the operator is working with a bulky shape which obstructs vision instead of a nice flat sheet which is relatively easy to handle. The invention greatly reduces these problems and speeds up the bending process.
The use of the invention provides a method of rapidly and accurately locating pre-selected break lines on flat stock and automatically aligning one or both ends of the stock in the jaw of a bending break with a high degree of reproducibility and ease in order to reproduce the same cross-sectional shape every time in about half the time.